by How to check CPU performance? Let’s find out
Updated: March 17, 2023 2:21 PM
Interested in checking and monitoring the performance of your CPU? There are several ways to go about this. In this article, we tell you how to check the CPU performance for your system using built-in tools on Windows.
Now reading: How to stress test CPU and RAM
Identify which processor you have
If you don’t yet know which processor you are using or if you want a more detailed overview of your CPU specifications, navigate to Settings > System > About. Here you will find an overview of the specifications of your system, including the full name of your processor.
Monitor and monitor CPU performance
The easiest way to monitor CPU performance is to use the Task Manager. This is a handy application that gives you an overview of all currently running processes and their resource usage.
If you navigate to the second “Performance” tab, you’ll find individual menus for different components: CPU, RAM, Storage, GPU, and more.
Navigate to the CPU menu (this is the menu you see first by default) to check the performance of your CPU.
In this menu, you can see information about metrics such as real-time CPU usage, current core clock speed (the value shown here is the clock speed for the fastest core), CPU uptime, and some basic CPU metrics such as cache size as Good.
You can also see if virtualization is enabled on your system.
If you want a more detailed overview of your CPU’s performance, or if you want to see the performance of each of the cores in your processor individually, you should use the Windows Resource Monitor app.
Monitor CPU temperatures
Unfortunately, there is no built-in tool in Windows that allows you to check the real-time temperatures of your CPU. The software for your graphics driver (GeForce Experience for Nvidia and Radeon Software for AMD) may have such a tool, so it’s worth looking there.
If not, you’ll need to download a third-party source monitoring tool like Core Temp or MSI Afterburner.
Afterburner is a more GPU focused software, but it also gives you information about your CPU. This is subjective, but it also has a more user-friendly interface than the other CPU monitoring software currently available.
In addition to your CPU temperature, you can find other valuable information by using these tools, such as voltage and power consumption. If you’re interested in overclocking, having a resource monitoring tool is a must.
Test CPU performance
Let’s also see how you can test the performance of your CPU. To do that, you need to run a stress test or benchmarking software such as CPU-Z, Cinebench or Prime95.
A stress test pushes your CPU to its limits. In other words, 100% utilization of all cores and threads running at their maximum clock speed.
A stress test helps you confirm that your CPU is capable of the performance it is expected to deliver and also allows you to identify underlying cooling or power issues that you may not notice in normal operating environments.
Summary of CPU performance tests
- Navigate to Settings>System>About if you just want to know the name and model of your processor, along with some other general information about your computer.
- Launch Task Manager to view CPU usage and more CPU-specific specifications, such as clock speed, core and thread count, and cache size.
- Use Resource Monitor to view the usage of your processor’s individual cores and threads.
- Use your GPU software or a third party app like Core Temp to monitor your CPU temps.
- Use a stress test or benchmarking software like Prime95 to validate your CPU’s arithmetic and thermal performance.
Last word
It is important to know what capacity your CPU is operating at as there can be a wide variety of reasons why a PC is not performing as it should. Testing the performance of your components helps you stay aware of any bugs or errors in the system. We hope this article has answered the question of how to monitor CPU performance.
